Following on from the I haven't cantered forever thread does..

[Sussexbythesea]

Slow controlled cantering on poorer ground e.g. hard or a bit stony or a bit boggy (not roads) have more impact than a good working trot?

I must admit to a teeny canter here and there (around a hundred metres or so) on ground I would normally not canter on because the rain has either turned paths into mud or washed all the surface away.

It's lovely to feel a canter rather than a trot and my boy gets a bit excited at the thought I think he is missing canter too It doesn't feel like he's pounding himself in fact it feels less impact than a trot.

Thoughts?

 

[Spyda]

Personally? I wouldn't do either on an inappropriate surface. My horse's legs are worth more to me than any brief canter or trot is. I know lots of people who are hunting right now, doing both on hard stony surfaces AND deep sticky ploughed fields twice a week with their horses, but then again, I can't afford another horse if this one goes 'wrong' (like a lot of those people can) so I guess there's the difference.

 

[tallyho!]

Shod or unshod? I think therein lies the difference.

I see many trot shod horses on tarmac and most are fine if conditioned to do so, but knowing what I know now I would hesitate to trot a shod horse on tarmac unless I needed to "get out of danger". Then again, gypsies trot their horses on tarmac all the time...

You see many trot and canter but you never know what the long-term impact is. Maybe a teeny canter here and there isn't so bad in the grand scheme of things but it's the risk of slipping that puts many people off doing it.... which leads to studs.... which leads to other problems etc etc.

 

[dafthoss]

No I'd rather delay his fitness programme by a few weeks and start competing a bit later than do more work on less than ideal surfaces.

 

[mandwhy]

Tarmac is pretty much the worst surface combined with having steel on your feet in any pace I would have thought. I would canter a shod horse in splattering wet but not deep sucky mud (ploughed fields eek no) and have considered it on some tracks near us that are sandy/stony but still hard. It does depend on the horse though, mine is a bit liable to slip at the mo being young (she is shod) and obv don't want to ruin her joints.

I think shoes do make a big difference to the impact, like I have boots that are hard like wood on the bottom and they kill my knees after long periods of walking compared to rubber soled shoes.

 

[Sussexbythesea]

Perhaps I didn't ask the right way I specifically said "not" roads and never mentioned tarmac - not sure where that came from? I've never cantered my horse on a road and I'm certainly not a reckless rider by any stretch of the imagination.

I basically wondered if there was any thinking or specific knowledge on whether canter was actually worse than trot with regard to impacts on the same surface? Personally I can't imagine a 100m canter on a bit of hard ground is worse than say 45 minutes hard schooling on a typical school surface or galloping around a XC course.